It’s taking me far longer to get through The Lay of the Land than the other two Frank Bascombe books, but passages like this keep me going:
“A lot of life is just plain wrong. And the older I get, the more clearly and often wrong it seems. And all you can do about it [...] is just start getting used to it, start selecting amazement over bewilderment.”
Maybe I really am an Existentialist. Do I need a label?
While visiting my folks this past weekend, I snagged the 20″ iMac that my step-dad had, to his dismay, found no use for after buying it sometime in 2007. I got it for a beyond-fair price, and the Megabus, despite other shortcomings I won’t get into here, did allow me to load the big white box with the plastic gray handle as a technically-extra checked bag.
The thing looks absurd on my desk, but maybe that’s because it’s got my 2004 iBook flanked to the left, while I try to keep track of what needs moving over, and figure out how. Many questions remain, but what I’m sure of is what I’m most psyched about: that everything on it, including my iTunes library, Garageband files, and AIF’s for burning Zapruder Point CDs, will fit EASILY, and it will ALL back up onto a single external drive.
Even before I got the iBook, I knew I’d have to play storage games, knowing my music would never fit on the 40 (really 30) GBs. Lately it was getting even more headachey (!!!), with me offloading some musical stuff onto thumb drives, etc. What a relief to say goodbye to all of that, even if my dreams of wireless keyboards and mice are deferred. (Hey: If “settling” for a slightly less shiny-and-new computer is how the economic crisis trickles down to me…then I have a lot to be thankful for.)
In other news, while I was driving around Cleveland, I borrowed a more-80’s-than-70’s John Denver mix I’d made for Mom about a year ago. I was floored not just by how many words I still remembered, but by how perfectly within my range all the vocal lines fit. Singing “Some Days are Diamonds” at the top of my lungs while cruising 480 was a blast.
Now that I write that, it occurs to me that whenever I put on John Denver at home, I can’t resist singing either. Makes sense, even if it’s not the coolest thing to admit to. I was raised on this stuff. Aww yeah:
Beginning with the sinking feeling balancing out the gee-whizzery that came with my first iPod, and culminating with Nick Southall’s excellent Stylus piece from 2006, I’ve always looked down on compression. Whenever I make mix CDs, I try to use uncompressed files whenever I have them, and I make note of the fact on the mix artwork itself. Same when I copy whole albums for people: I re-rip the CD in an uncompressed form, then re-burn it and delete the files. By the same token, when people give me discs, I’m always wary of the source. Call it snobbery if you will, but in some listening configurations, it’s glaringly obvious when you’ve got a rip of a burn of a compressed rip (etc.).
Now when I record music, I take this suspicion with me. I even made an arch comment in the notes to my last CD, something about how the files have not been compressed, so “I leave that to you.” (Yep, like my version of Queen’s “no keyboards were used” disclaimers from the 70’s. What a nerd!) Still, I’ve recently been reminded that I’m actually conflating two different things here. There’s the compression of audio files, and all the gains HD space / loss in sound quality that comes with it. There’s a consumer level of this kind of compression, like when you rip a CD to ACC or MP3 format. There’s also the, erm, “producer” end of this, where, say, Metallica or Oasis compress holy hell out of their albums at mastering time in order for the end product to bore into your eardrums–oops, I mean grab your attention–upon first listen. It’s basically the same principle that makes television ads sound louder. They are in fact louder because they’re compressed.
Anyway, the articles linked above and below say way more than I could on that subject. Getting back to the conflation of compressions… Maybe a better way to put this would be to say that I have a blanket fear of compression that’s proven inappropriate and impractical in a recording scenario. I’m talking here about applying compression to individual tracks, like I did with Scott while he was here, and like I’ll probably do on my own projects going forward. In old bands, I’ve heard compression applied successfully before, and I was trying to do this to some of the wilder, dipping-and-cresting instruments Scott brought to the table (hello, accordion!). Only Garageband, in its consumer-level-ness, only has so many compression settings, and during my first mix, I couldn’t find any that sounded natural. “Natural” meaning without losing too much nuance.
(Parenthetical aside: All of this sound-talk is as squishy and subjective as wine-tasting, in my opinion. “Punchy,” “warm” and “wet” are just like “peppery,” “buttery” and “notes of peach,” each set of phrases having equal potential to describe as to elude…or infuriate. In fact, due to the high volume of wine I was drinking when my old band was mixing The Problem with Fun, I still sometimes think of tannin-rich reds as having “a lot of high end.” But anyway…)
When I went for a second pass at mixing Scott’s stuff, I found a compression setting (“basic vocal,” I think it was called) that, to my ears at least, did exactly what it was supposed to do. It took some of the jump-outy-ness (!!!) of Scott’s more dynamic vocal takes and smoothed them out without flattening them like a pancake. Ditto that pesky accordion and those unfortunate cases where we had to record the voice plus one instrument in a single go. These tracks, placed alongside closer-miked, UNcompressed ones (electric guitar, keyboards), maintained their character without getting lost, or riding obnoxiously over the top. A happy discovery.
Of course, when I listen back on my iPod, such distinctions aren’t exactly noticeable. So is it a fool’s game? Meh. All I know is that it’s fun, and on the off chance anyone wanted to blast the stuff through proper speakers, or some Bose headphones, I’d like to think it helps with the immersion. Now if someone could get that message to the Killers…that’d be great.
Meanwhile, here’s some further reading on the “loudness wars,” if you’re so inclined. Includes fascinating graphs that display just how compressed music has become in the last 20-odd years:
http://www.cdmasteringservices.com/dynamicdeath.htm
Weekend before last, after Scott and I were done recording his Monologue Bombs demos, we captured our acoustic take on Jackson Browne’s “Somebody’s Baby.” Scott thinks I’m obsessed with that song, but it really does suit our vocal blend well, especially after we dropped the key down a step. Scott also indulged me by accomppanying me on accordion for the moodier version of “Spirit of 91” that I’ve been messing around with for a couple years now. Both of these demos were recorded with a single mike. I hope to post more one-mike demos on here as I re-arrange things, learn new covers, whatever. Enjoy!
Somebody’s Baby [One-Mike Demo]
Scott’s visit continued to be a whirlwind. We recorded the basic tracks for 7 songs on Wednesday. He didn’t realize that with my set-up I can only record one mike at a time, and he didn’t feel comfortable doing separate vocal tracks for at least a couple of the songs. Fidelity was compromised as a result, but only slightly. And you know me–I kinda LIKE hearing the rattling of the piano keys in the room anyway (though naturally I did my best to minimize it in the mix).
You’ll just have to trust that there’s no sibling rivalry when I say that Scott is ten times the musician I am. Recording him was kind of amazing. For starts, he plays keyboards AND guitar AND drums, all well enough to record. This one song he did, “Juneteenth,” he played the main guitar chords and sang it in maybe two takes. Then he turned around and played some extra guitar bits–three distinct parts–all on a single track. Oh, and that was in one take. And vocals? I remember from being in a band with him how reliable his backups always were when we recorded. Only now he’s writing these complex lead parts for himself–with trills and falsettos and all–and nailing them with total nonchalance. OK, so maybe it does make me a little green…
That night we watched the first disc of the first season of Gene Simmons’ Family Jewels. The less said about that the better. Thursday we did some big-ticket yet inexpensive tourist items. If I was a real blogger I’d post pictures, but of course I forgot my camera. That night we met up with Aselin and Rachael to see a couple bands at The Whistler in Logan Square. The scene was thick with hipsters, so we feared for the worst. But when they hit the stage, the bands were actually very tuneful and, as Scott put it, “delightfully un-cool.” Love Raid is a basic indie rock trio with a little extra swing and a killer cover of “Hungry Heart.” All City Affairs is a funny-white-guy-doing-beats thing, but sincerely funky and joyous, never spilling into schtick. Positive vibes ruled the night.
Next day we got back into recording, with an unexpectedly long break to get a burger at Kuma’s Corner. That place never ceases to surprise me vis-a-vis its crowdedness at ANY hour. I had the Neurosis. Scott had the Lynrd Skynrd, which was the special. I gather the specials at Kuma’s are always NOT heavy metal, but I’m not sure. At any rate, the experience is so damn manly, with a pint of beer, and a stupid-big burger, and metal music blasting at you. Makes the air outside smell all the better when you leave. Can’t top it.
Saturday we met up with Aselin at his music space. On Thursday he’d offered to play harmonica on one of Scott’s songs, “Night Doesn’t Move.” After that, he had Scott play keyboards on something of his. We half-heartedly mulled over going out afterwards, but as Scott said, “the music IS the fun.” Which was certainly true. I really like when musical minds get together and reach a common goal. And being around people who, like me, write and make music with no hope of profit…it makes me feel like I’m not so crazy for bothering. Anyway, here’s “Night Doesn’t Move,” with Scott’s permission:
Night Doesn’t Move [Monologue Bombs - April 2009 Demo]
I’m not sure what-all will become of these recordings. At the very least, they will serve as demos for the new full-band version of the Monologue Bombs, Scott’s singer-songwriter outlet. I will keep you posted, should Scott start his own blog, or offer them online in any other capacity.
